


Holding the Universe Together

by bleumysti



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Brotp, Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-03-01 06:29:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18794833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bleumysti/pseuds/bleumysti
Summary: "Do you think she would be proud of me?” He asked.“Oh honey,” she smiled a sad smile and patted his hair. “I always had a soft spot for you, you know?” Maria/Max pre-series friendship. Hints of Echo.





	Holding the Universe Together

**Fandom:** Roswell New Mexico

**Characters:** Maria Deluca, Max Evans

**Tumblr Inspo** : Dia de Maria

_“She wasn’t doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.”_ \- Salinger 

**A/N** : Pre-series Maria and Max. The brotp I need in my life. Freestyle, all errors are due to humanity and sleep-deprivation. 

—

**Thwack**

“First time’s a warning; next time it’s hitting one of you, got it?”

Maria popped her gum while pointing the baseball bat at both rowdy, drunken patrons who were seconds away from a brawl.

“We’re closed now,” she feigned sweetness as she cocked her head to the side. “Now get outta here!”

She stared both men down as neither of them made a move towards the exit.

She twirled the bat like a baton and was on her way around the counter when he found his voice in his drunken haze.

“The lady,” he shook his head to better clear his thoughts and assert some semblance of authority. “The lady told you to leave, gentlemen.”

Max glared at the two drunks until they had the right mind to retreat, and when they did, he laughed in delight; it worked.

Two Marias looked back at him.

“Thanks for the assist, newly appointed lawman Evans.” She went back to wiping down the counter. “I had it though.”

Was that sass? Yeah, it was probably sass. It had been a few years since high school, but even then, Maria could kill a man with her sass.

It would be the sweetest kind of death though.

“The lady doth protests too much.”

He was pretty sure his words were slurring together, and he didn’t realize he had celebrated his new official role at the sheriff’s department so much.

He didn’t normally drink a lot. That was something he left to Michael.

Maria came into focus again, and he realized that the real reason he avoided the Pony was she reminded him of Rosa – she reminded him of Liz.

He didn’t realize the mere thought had brought him to tears until warm hands were rubbing at his neck and face.

“Easy there, Evans,” Maria cooed. I think you had more than enough.“

She sounded so maternal, and it made him want to cry more. If she knew anything about how he affected her life, she wouldn’t be soothing him as if he were a child.

He couldn’t understand why she was in the first place, but she had this faraway look in those soulful brown eyes that made him think it wasn’t about him at all.

“Do you think she would be proud of me?” He asked before he could stop himself, and he cringed at how pathetic he sounded.

She knew. Maria always knew. He never bought into her and her mom being psychics or witches or whatever else the town liked to call them, but she had a certain intuition he couldn’t explain.

“Oh honey,” she smiled a sad smile and patted his hair. “I always had a soft spot for you, you know?”

He scoffed in disbelief since Isobel all but made him believe he was a dope who no one could ever appreciate, at least back in high school.

“You were supposed to be a writer, Evans,” she replied quietly. She rested her hip half sitting on the table and absentmindedly stacked his glasses for cleanup.

“You were supposed to travel the world,” he shot back. “You were supposed to sing.”

He watched her body tense, but he didn’t know if it was out of anger or surprise.

“How the heck did you know that?”

Surprise then.

“You mattered to Liz,” he said honestly with a shrug. “So you mattered to me.”

He studied her face. It was something he was getting better at with the new job. Her eyes were misty, and for a moment he could see a longing in them.

He never knew what held her back; Maria was too big for their small town, and he figured she would take off after high school.

He doesn’t know if she ever did, but if she had, she came back sooner than expected.

“The job, does it make you happy?” She asked. “Does it fulfill you?”

He thought about it for seconds too long, and his head lolled a little too far to the side; she suppressed a smirk. He could tell.

“I get to help people,” he says a little too loudly, and he overcompensates by whispering it again. “I get to help people, and I like that part a lot.”

She smiles down at him. “Then she’s proud of you.” She squeezes his hand and collects the cups.

“Does this make you happy? Does this fulfill you?” He asked, but when her hand stalled and her face scrunched up, he figured he screwed up again.

“Oh, oh, sorry. Please don’t cry,” he shoved damp bar napkins at her and reached for her face before dropping them awkwardly.

“I’m not about to cry, you dope,”  she laughed him off, and he thought maybe she was lying, but he was too inebriated to tell.

“Alright, Evans. Who am I calling for you? The dirty mechanic who is in here every other week or the bitchy socialite?”

He must have looked confused as hell because she took pity on him. “Why don’t you go wash up, and I’ll take you home.”

He nodded and stumbled to the bathroom for a splash of cold water before returning to the bar. The lights were mostly out.

Maria stood palms gripping the bar counter her head tilted into the phone pressed between her ear and shoulder blade.

“I’ll be home soon, Mimi,” her voice was a higher pitch as if she was hiding how exhausted she sounded. She also sounded worried.

“Did you get the food I left you? No, mom. I’m not babying you. You’re right, I was just checking in. I’m making a quick stop, and I’ll be home shortly.

No, not that type of stop. Fine, it’s that type of stop. He’s tall dark, handsome and wears a uniform. Whole shebang. I’ll tell you all the details.”

She hung up and leaned forward onto the bar and exhaled. He felt bad for impeding on her moment, but then without even turning back around to look at him, she asked: “Are you ready officer tall, dark, and handsome?”

He stumbled in surprised, and she was by his side propping him up. “Easy there, cowboy.”

“I’m s-sorry, ” he stuttered leaning into her more than he wanted.

“I don’t give this special treatment to just anyone. You should be flattered, Evans,” she grunted under his weight. “You were always one of the sweet ones, and no worries, I’m not taking you home to ravish you.”

She laughed when his eyes went wide, and his cheeks flushed upon realizing she knew he was eavesdropping after all.

The night air did him some good, but Maria stayed tucked beneath him like a toy puppy. She was small, the way Liz was small. But she was strong enough to hold up his frame, and as she helped him get in he wondered why he never bothered befriending Maria.

She was a good friend and a nurturer, and he realized that in some ways they had a lot in common.

He saw the medical paperwork on the seat – endless papers which mostly had Mimi Deluca’s name all over them, and it was beginning to make sense why Maria may have remained in Roswell and at the ripe age of 23 was running her family bar alone.

“No one knows what’s wrong with her, "she said softly as they cruised along. "The doctors don’t even listen.”

“I’m sorry,” he responded sincerely. He reached out and squeezed her hand, and she squeezed it back. “She would be proud of you too. She loved you so much.”

“Yeah, I miss her,” she said with such sadness he wanted another drink to drown out the guilt.

She switched the radio on and Bon Jovi’s “Living On a Prayer” flooded the car. She began singing at the top of her lungs, and he didn’t know what it was about Maria, but by her third nudge, he joined in.

“One of these days we’re going to do this proper, cowboy,” She yelled over the music. “We’re going to do karaoke.”

He snorted and blushed at the mere thought. “I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.”

“Oh Maximilian, you owe me, and I always get my way.”

His headache was starting to settle in, but he wouldn’t dare derail her jam session.

So it made it all the easier to believe that, yeah, she always did.

* * *

 


End file.
